"First thought, best thought" was the phrase that National Book Award–winning poet Allen Ginsberg used to describe spontaneous writing—a way to minimize the effects of over-thinking and self-editing while writing to capture the most immediate, authentic experience. For more than 30 years, Ginsberg and his colleagues at Naropa University, including Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs, and Diane di Prima, inspired emerging writers to express themselves with unfettered honesty, and their lessons are presented in this collection from Naropa's audio archive.